


Revelation

by vampirevessel



Category: ATEEZ (Band), K-pop
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Catholic Character, Catholic Prayers, Catholic Rosary, Catholicism, Christian Character, Christianity, Developing Relationship, Drug Use, Drugs, Friendship, Gay Male Character, M/M, Platonic Relationships, Punk, References to Depression, Religion, Religious Conflict, Underage Drug Use
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-14 23:55:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28554243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vampirevessel/pseuds/vampirevessel
Summary: revelation/rɛvəˈleɪʃ(ə)n/nouna surprising and previously unknown fact that has been disclosed to others.
Kudos: 1





	Revelation

**Author's Note:**

> I felt like publishing this, yet I can't say I'll ever even get to part two. We shall see.

"Yo, Hwa. What the fuck is this?" Yeosang asked as he took a necklace from Seonghwa's bed.  
"Is the punk feeling a lil' religious, huh?" he laughed and took a closer look at the necklace.  
"Give it to me, it's not mine."  
Yeosang grinned.   
"Are you fucking innocent church boys now or what?" he asked and his grin grew a little bigger.  
"I don’t. Give it to me."  
"Actually, I think I'll keep it."  
"Give me the necklace, now. You know I would beat your face for less." Yeosang kept grinning, even though, yes, he knew Seonghwa would beat him up for less. He dropped the necklace and Seonghwa caught it just in time before it could hit the floor.  
"What's your fucking problem!" Seonghwa yelled and grabbed a fist full of Yeosang's hair, dragging him to the ground.   
"What is your damn problem, huh?" Yeosang hissed, clawing at his Seonghwa's wrist. He let go of Yeosang's hair and unlocked his top drawer with the key around his own neck. Seonghwa put the necklace inside, and grabbed a small vacuumed bag of weed.  
"Who I do or do not fuck is none of your business, Kang. Now do you want your stuff or not?" Yeosang rolled his eyes, paid, and left with his goods.

After hearing the front door of his flat close, Seonghwa sat down on his bed and took the necklace out of the drawer again. There were a bunch of small little beads of glass, some bigger ones, and a cold golden crucifix. The tiny lock on the other end of the necklace was broken, which explained how the necklace got on his bed. He didn't know what it was, but he knew it was something holy or religious, and he knew who it belonged to.  
Now what was he supposed to do with it? And why had he gotten so protective over it? He could've just said he's fucking a pretty little church boy and everything would've been fine. 

He put the necklace back and locked the drawer, then grabbed his phone to contact the only person this could possibly belong to: his partner for the politics project.  
Seonghwa decided against mentioning the necklace right away. Maybe it wasn't even his. Maybe he hadn't noticed it was gone.

The cross was quite heavy and very detailed, he might get paid good money if he sold it to the right desperate psychotic who believed he was the offspring of God or whatever went on in their fucked up minds. Seonghwa had sworn to himself he would never end up like that.

After asking his partner when they would meet again, he took the half-finished joint from his ashtray and started a movie.

Saturdays had always been Seonghwa's favorite days of the week. He could stay up until five in the morning, sleep until two and nobody would get on his nerves. There were no teachers judging him for not doing his homework, for being late to class, for smoking behind the gym or not appearing at all. No students whispering, whether good or bad, no assholes boosting their ego by bullying other students. No people.

He started his day with a joint and some left-over pizza.  
The necklace, to his own surprise, was lying on top of his nightstand instead of being locked away in the drawer. He didn't remember fixing the lock, but he didn't remember most of the things he did anyway. Seonghwa put the necklace over his head. The weight of it surprised him, even though he had held it in his hand before. It was heavier than it looked, definitely, but somehow it felt even heavier on his chest.

He threw the empty pizza box in the trash and opened his windows. It had been a while since he last turned his room into a hotbox. Maybe he would invite San or Yeosang over some time, hotboxing was definitely easier with three people. He put on a new shirt and a pair of sweatpants. The pile in the corner behind his bed was growing every day but he never did his laundry until he really had nothing else left to wear.

Seonghwa stared out of his window. Even if the huge tree right in front of him wasn’t there, all he would’ve seen was dark clouds and street lamps. The weather forecast looked horrible.  
He had rented an apartment outside the center of the city where the rent was low but he could still take the bus to school. Not that he had to, Seonghwa had a car and a license, a legal one, not the fake one he got when he was sixteen, but every once in a while when he went to school stoned or tipsy, it was better to take the bus.

Seonghwa dropped back on his bed and started YouTube. He scrolled through his suggestions, his subscription box, and ended up playing the music mix YouTube had put together for him. 

Three songs later, he heard the annoying sound of his doorbell. He paused the song and got up to see who was disturbing his peaceful Saturday.

"Oh. Hey Hongjoong" Seonghwa greeted and gestured to his partner to come inside. He remembered a message from an unknown number, asking if he was free on Saturday afternoon. Seonghwa had thought it was a customer, and he hadn't thought three PM was considered afternoon.  
The boy entered the flat and leaned down to take off his shoes.  
"I told you you could leave your shoes on, did I?" Seonghwa asked and the boy nodded.  
"Yes, I just don't wear my shoes inside."  
Seonghwa was surprised Hongjoong hadn't brought a pair of pink fluffy house shoes. They entered Seonghwa's room and Hongjoong sat down on the bed, legs closed, hands folded on his thighs.

"Want a beer or something?"  
"Water is fine."  
"Right." Hongjoong didn't drink, Hongjoong didn't wear shoes inside and Hongjoong was probably still a virgin. Seonghwa felt dumb for not realizing earlier that Hongjoong gave off huge church boy vibes.  
He came back from the kitchen with a beer and a bottle of water.

"What are you looking for?" Seonghwa asked and passed the water to Hongjoong.  
"Nothing. Your room looks… nice." Yeah sure, Seonghwa thought, and sat down on his weirdly colored beansack. Church boy Hongjoong definitely thought his messy stoner punk room looked "nice".

"Okay, so what's the plan?" he asked and opened his bottle with a lighter.  
"Well, we were discussing whether to choose the consequences of legalizing drugs like cannabis, or the different forms of governments. Actually, I can't see either of them as a good project. Those are great topics but-"  
"Okay, yo, stop." Hongjoong tilted his head in confusion.  
"Look, you can't come here at three on a Saturday and just start doing school stuff right away. Tell me something interesting." Hongjoong scoffed.   
"Like what?"  
"Like, what you do, what you like, I don't know."

Hongjoong sighed, shifting in his place on Seonghwa's bed.   
"What I do is none of your business and what I like is getting my work done on time. Now could we continue?" Seonghwa shook his head in disappointment.  
"Nope. My house, my rules." He took a sip of his beer and continued. "So, you probably know I'm gay, right?"  
"I do, and I do not think this is relevant to our project."  
"Well, actually, I suggest we do a project on the acceptance of homosexuality. How does that sound?" As he spoke, Seonghwa realized just how great his idea was, and he could see that Hongjoong was thinking the same.

"I must admit, that doesn't sound too bad. If you are planning to be our example, and include us into the project, personally I do accept your sexual orientation." Seonghwa was simultaneously surprised and not surprised at all.  
"Do you, yeah? Prove it."  
"I am not obliged to prove anything to you. We could do one survey you give to some of your friends, as I assume you have friends that share your sexuality, and we will give another survey to people of different age and profession to see their opinion on homosexuality." How did he manage to turn even Seonghwa’s awful flirts into something school related?

He started to regret having smoked that joint before Hongjoong came over. He was proud of his idea but all he could focus on was how sexy he sounded when he did his high quality speeches.  
"Could you repeat that?" he asked, eyes scanning Hongjoong's face. The boy sighed again but repeated his words. His pronunciation was perfect, no stutter, no lisp, nothing. Just the beautiful voice of an angel. Hongjoong was definitely part of the choir in church. Maybe he even got to sing solos. Seonghwa had no idea what a solo in choir looked like but if it was Hongjoong, he would give it a try.

"You're cute, you know" Seonghwa said after Hongjoong had finished, got up from his bean sack and stretched his body, making some of his joints crack.  
"Thank you." Hongjoong didn't look up, kept writing questions on a sheet of paper. His hands were pretty. Soft and skinny but not too boney.  
Seonghwa approached him and started playing with the boy's hair when he was standing directly in front of him. It was soft and healthy. Black was definitely his natural hair color and he doubted that Hongjoong’s hair had ever come in contact with any hair damaging chemicals. For Seonghwa’s hair it was a miracle if it went a month without being assaulted. 

"I would like you to refrain from doing that" Hongjoong said with a serious voice, yet he didn't look up. Seonghwa grabbed some of his hair, gently, and pulled it back to make the boy look at him.  
"Seriously, stop it" Hongjoong hissed, and Seonghwa could almost hear a little bit of anger in his voice.

"I thought you accepted my sexual orientation?" Seonghwa looked down at Hongjoong, his dark, shiny eyes and cute, pink lips, so close to his crotch.  
"I do, but I do not accept this behavior."  
Seonghwa laughed.  
"Sweet, you sound like my father." He leaned down, minimizing the distance between their faces. Hongjoong grabbed at his chest and gasped. Did it take him this long to realize his pretty little necklace was gone?

"What? Are you missing something?" Finally, Hongjoong looked him in the eyes.  
"You took it."  
"I didn't take it! Actually, I saved it. One of my customers found it. Do you want it back?"  
"Of course I want it back. It belongs to me, Seonghwa."  
"Oh, I see that a little different."  
He pulled the necklace through the collar of his shirt and Hongjoong's jaw dropped.

"You can't just wear my rosary! Give it back, please." Seonghwa was surprised Hongjoong hadn't noticed the absence of his pretty little necklace earlier. It seemed quite important to him.  
"What about my payment? I'm a businessman, you know."  
"I am not going to pay for what belongs to me."  
"Right, that would be unfair."

Seonghwa let go of Hongjoong's hair and opened the necklace. Hongjoong sighed in relief, reaching out for his rosary, but instead of putting it in the boy's hand, Seonghwa put it into the front side of his pants.  
"That’s so childish! Take it out of there" Hongjoong demanded, Seonghwa just grinned.  
"Go get it, boy. Nobody's holding you back."  
“I am not putting my hand into your dirty pants.” Hongjoong glared at him, arms crossed, but Seoghwa didn’t move an inch.  
“Hey, they aren’t dirty. I’ve only been wearing them for two days.”  
"Seonghwa, please." Tears started filling Hongjoong's eyes, making them look even prettier.

"You want it? Take it."   
Hongjoong sighed.  
"Okay, what do you want? Ten? Twenty?"  
"Nah, you missed that option, sweetie. I want", Seonghwa did a dramatic break, even though he already knew what he wanted, "I want a kiss."   
Hongjoong hesitated. Seonghwa had way too much fun testing the little christian’s patience. His friends would’ve either given him a whole blowjob or try beating him up until they got what they wanted. None of them would start crying.  
"Okay. One kiss." Seonghwa raised his eyebrows in surprise, almost disappointed in how fast he was giving in. Hongjoong closed his eyes and swallowed hard, ready to pay for what belonged to him anyway.

He leaned forward, his bottom lip was trembling. Seonghwa could see the conflict on Hongjoong's face, the tiny tears clinging to his eyelashes and finally, Seonghwa came back to his senses. What the fuck was he doing?  
He looked at the necklace, wondering why it was so important to Hongjoong. Wondering how someone could be so serious about loving an old imaginary dude up in the sky.

Unlike what Hongjoong thought of him, Seonghwa wasn’t a child. The necklace had never left his hand. If Hongjoong had decided to put his hand into Seonghwa's pants, it would've been for nothing but Seonghwa's amusement.

He put the necklace around Hongjoong's neck and took a step back. The boy opened his eyes as he felt the weight of the cross on his chest.

"Thank you", he breathed and took the crucifix in his hand.  
"I'm sorry, that was stupid" Seonghwa apologized and sat down on his bed, next to Hongjoong but with respectful distance. "I don't know what happened. I'm stoned and you're pretty and I'm sorry."  
"It's alright. Thank you for giving it back. Shall we continue our project?"  
Seonghwa lifted his head in surprise.  
"You wanna stay?"  
"Of course, I'm not doing it alone" Hongjoong said with a shy smile on his lips.  
"Okay, thank you. And again, I'm sorry."

They continued working together. Hongjoong provided most of the intellectual input, while Seonghwa put together a nice layout for their survey on his laptop. 

Seonghwa learned that the necklace, a rosary, was a tool to help catholics like Hongjoong keep track of their prayers. Hongjoong's rosary was a present from his best friend, who died from cancer two years ago. Seonghwa expressed his compassion and asked how he was still loving God like he did, even after he took his best friend from him. Something he never understood. 

"I don't usually talk about religion" Hongjoong said, his eyes fixed on his paper "but God has a plan for all of us. And if his time on earth was over, I'm happy to know he's doing his work in heaven now."  
"So what's his plan for me, huh?"  
"How should I know? I'm not God, not even a priest, let alone the pope. Only you, him, and they can know what he has planned for you. Even then, people often misinterpret his words.” Hongjoong sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. “I'm sorry, can we talk about something else?" Seonghwa nodded.

"Just one more question. It's not about religion per se but I assume it will be in your case. Are you a virgin?"  
"I don't think that's any of your business, but yes."  
"Have you ever been in a romantic relationship?"  
"No, and before you ask, I've never had my first kiss either." Seonghwa could hear in his voice that Hongjoong was getting impatient with him, annoyed, and Seonghwa was tempted to get on his nerves a little more, maybe even making him snap.  
"So you were ready to waste your first kiss on me for your stupid necklace?" Hongjoong stared at Seonghwa's eyes.  
"It's not a stupid necklace. But yes, I would have wasted it on someone stupid like you."  
"Sorry, I didn't mean-" Hongjoong lifted his hand and interrupted Seonghwa in his words.   
"I'm leaving. If you have any questions regarding the survey, text me." He quickly packed his stuff, touched his rosary and left Seonghwa's room.  
"Hongjoong, please, I didn't mean to offend you." The boy put on his shoes and opened the door.  
"See you on Monday."

Seonghwa felt like shit. What the fuck was wrong with him? He wasn't a nice, lawful person, everyone knew that, but he had been taught the necessary manners and now he was harassing and insulting a nice guy who had never done anything wrong in his life. 

He sat down on his office chair and finished his work, printing a bunch of copies for Hongjoong, and some for his friends. After putting the sheets into his bag, he decided that the best, or at least fastest way to solve the issue, was to sleep over it.


End file.
